90 INSECT ARTIZANS AND THEIR WORK 



The older travellers told of the invariable planning 

 out of the interior into definite halls, royal apart- 

 ments, nurseries, food stores, etc., and their sectional 

 elevations were copied into all the natural-history 

 works of the last century, just as were those of 

 the " mole's fortress," which looked like an iron 

 casting. Both have been shown by later investi- 

 gators to be largely imaginary, or at least idealized. 

 There are various chambers, it is true, and a special 

 prison-cell for the female ; but for the rest the 

 termitarium appears to be made up mainly of 

 labyrinthine passages, a style of architecture which 

 gives much greater strength than the vaulted halls 

 with wide-spanned domes. 



It must be remembered that " ant-hills " of 

 great size are the work of several — it may be, many 

 — generations, and often of several species. Bates 

 found at Santarem that the large hillocks contained 

 colonies of several different species, each of which 

 had a different way of utilizing the building 

 materials and kept strictly to its own part of 

 the structure — a further parallel with the " sky- 

 scraper " that is let out in tenements occupied by 

 different firms or companies ! 



There is no entrance to these termitaria evident 

 from the exterior. They are all built up from 

 the ground under cover, and the entrances and 

 exits are at a distance, approached by under- 

 ground tunnels. Only when a big batch of the 

 winged males and females have reached maturity 

 are the outer walls pierced. Then the workers 



